First Real Money “Run it Twice” Table Deployed on PokerStars

Update Oct 25: Run it Twice is now deployed on all PLO tables $1/2 and up.

PokerStars’ new “run it twice” feature is being deployed on real money tables.

A single full ring 50c/$1 PLO game, labelled as type “run it twice” in the lobby, was deployed late last week. A new setting in the client software, which was also updated last week, allows players to enable the feature. Both players in an all-in pot must have this feature turned on to run it twice.

The idea of “running it twice” has long been popular in high stakes cash games, and was popularized in televised shows like High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. The situation occurs when two players are all-in before the river. When both players agree, the rest of the board is dealt twice, and if each player wins one, then the pot is split.

It was first introduced to online poker by Merge Gaming back in April 2008, when it was called “deal it twice,” and later popularized on Full Tilt Poker in late 2009.

Running it twice reduces all-in variance, one of the aspects of short-term luck, and, thanks to all-in EV graphs in poker tracking software, the most visible.

PokerStars has confirmed that it will not “rake it twice,” a term coined when Full Tilt implemented the feature and raked both pots when two boards are ran out.

There is no timescale for when the feature will be deployed to other real money games.